Portulaca grandiflora cultivar Snow White.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Portulaca plant, botanically known as Portulaca grandiflora, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Snow Whitexe2x80x99.
The new Portulaca is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Naaldwijk, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Portulacas with interesting flower forms and flower colors.
The new Portulaca is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of an unnamed selection of Portulaca grandiflora, not patented, that was discovered and selected by the Inventor during the summer of 1999 in a controlled environment in Naaldwijk, The Netherlands, on the basis of its white-colored double flowers.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by cuttings taken in a controlled environment in Naaldwijk, The Netherlands since 1999, has shown that the unique features of this new Portulaca are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar Snow White have not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment and culture such as temperature, light intensity, and daylength without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Snow Whitexe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Snow Whitexe2x80x99 as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. Outwardly spreading and trailing plant habit.
2. Freely branching growth habit, dense and full plants.
3. Relatively rapid growth rate.
4. Double flower form.
5. White-colored flowers.
In addition to flower coloration, plants of the new Portulaca differ from plants of the parent selection and other Portulaca cultivars known to the Inventor in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Portulaca are not as compact as plants of the parent selection and other known cultivars of Portulaca.
2. Plants of the new Portulaca have a more rapid growth rate than plants of the parent selection and other known cultivars of Portulaca.
3. Plants of the new Portulaca have double flowers whereas plants of the parent selection and other known cultivars of Portulaca have single flowers.
Plants of the new Portulaca differ from plants of the cultivar Cindy, U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 10/016,877 filed concurrently, and the cultivar Sleeping Beauty, U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 10/016,878 filed concurrently, primarily in flower coloration.